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 * Copyright © 2019 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Saving',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2019/04/23.jpg" alt="My ring is missing another gem" class="framed-centred-image" width="800" height="480"/>
<section id="mobile">
	<h2>Mobile service</h2>
	<p>
		Last I knew, T-Mobile, the carrier with a shop next to Oregon Community Credit Union where I do most of my banking, was cutting out their not-unlimited plans, but not reducing the prices of their unlimited plans.
		They claimed that they were trying to help their customers by giving everyone unlimited data with their mobile lines, but clearly, they were trying to force all new customers to buy the more-expensive unlimited date plans.
		After depositing my pay cheque and withdrawing my rent cheque, I decided to drop by on a whim, to see how much the plans cost now.
		Obviously, they&apos;d be too high, considering that there are still two cheap options in the city, both of which have unlimited data, it&apos;s just mostly slow data.
		But I won&apos;t even use up the fast data allowance anyway, most likely.
	</p>
	<p>
		However, instead of just giving me an answer to what their cheapest plan was, they asked what I&apos;d be using it for.
		I told them I use data, but I don&apos;t use any talk or $a[SMS].
		I guess that didn&apos;t really answer the question, in retrospect.
		I use the device for email and occasional Web browsing.
		Anyway, they asked what device it was, so I pulled it out and said it was the old GT-i9100.
		They could see it was a so-called &quot;smartphone&quot;, which they previously had refused to put a tablet line on, just so they could charge me for the talk and $a[SMS] that I don&apos;t use, and would rather not even have on the device to it&apos;d be impossible for people to pester me via telephone.
		This time though, they offered me a tablet line.
		A tablet line is cheaper than what I can get from their competitors, so it looks like they&apos;ll probably get my business.
		They tried to get me to buy today using a couple tactics, but I explained that the devices they want to sell me don&apos;t do what I need them to, and that I need to get a replacement battery for my device, which I won&apos;t be able to do until the first.
		They said they&apos;d see me on the first then, trying to get me in as quickly as possible, and being caught off-guard, I said I&apos;d probably not be by, as I&apos;d need to bike to Eugene that day for the battery; I&apos;d probably be by on the Tuesday <strong>*after*</strong> the first.
	</p>
	<p>
		I forgot to specify that I was only interested in prepaid plans, as I wasn&apos;t goin in on an actual data-collecting mission, and had been taken by surprise when I&apos;d gotten useful data out of them.
		So as I headed out, I went back and asked if the plan they were promising was prepaid or postpaid.
		They told me it was prepaid, but I could go postpaid if I wanted to.
		They started to explain, but I declined, saying prepaid was what I was looking for.
		I didn&apos;t tell them this, but there&apos;s pretty much no way I&apos;d ever sign up for a postpaid mobile plan.
		Those things are rip-offs.
		This is another thing about T-Mobile that&apos;s changed while I&apos;ve been away, I guess.
		They used to push their postpaid plans really hard, and if you asked for prepaid, they&apos;d do it, but they&apos;d try to talk you out of it.
		Now, the plan they offered me right off the bat was prepaid.
	</p>
	<p>
		As I left though, I remembered that I&apos;m only checking to see if the shop in Eugene <strong>*has*</strong> the battery I need, and if so, for what price.
		They likely don&apos;t have it, and if they do have it, it&apos;s probably more expensive than the batteries I&apos;ve seen online.
		That means that on the first, I&apos;ll find out I won&apos;t be getting the battery from there, and that&apos;ll be the day I order the battery online.
		The battery probably wont arrive by Tuesday morning, so I&apos;ll head to that area of town still without the battery, and it won&apos;t be until the Tuesday after that that I actually drop by to get the line set up.
	</p>
	<p>
		Having actually gotten useful information on plans, instead of satisfying my idle curiosity about the &quot;smartphone&quot; plans (a question still left unanswered), I decided to pay a visit to the other two carriers with shops in my town, Cricket and Metro (Metro being a branch of T-Mobile).
		Neither one of them seems to have changed, so the deal T-Mobile offered me seems to be the best option for now.
		AT&amp;T offers service in the area, but they don&apos;t seem to have a shop in the city.
		I&apos;d have to go find them in the next city over if I wanted to talk pay my bill in person, which would be a drag.
		Oh, and by the way, I think Metro and Cricket still have <strong>*fees*</strong> for paying your bill in person.
		They did last time I checked.
		And that puts them even further out of the running.
		Last I checked, T-Mobile had an odd fee for paying your bill in person that they don&apos;t tell you about and disguise as a fee for something else, but it&apos;s certainly a pay-in-person fee of sorts because you don&apos;t get charged that fee when you pay online.
		The fee&apos;s less than a dollar though, or at least it was, so it&apos;s not a huge deal.
		I do need to pay my bill in cash though, so as to not tie my name to the actual account in any way, due to the noxious tracking all carriers around here do, and the reporting to authorities they do when requested by said authorities.
		There&apos;s no need for my name to be on that.
	</p>
	<p>
		It&apos;ll be nice to have email on the go again.
		Being able to look up things as I think about them will be nice as well.
		These days, I have to try to remember to look them up when I get home.
		They&apos;re often too unimportant to bother writing down, and I end up forgetting them for days at a time.
		I guess that means such use of my mobile will also be unimportant, but still, it&apos;ll be nice.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="drudgery">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			That wasn&apos;t an alternative source.
			I found that article using the second source down on the list.
			That source doesn&apos;t host their own articles though.
			Instead, they have the audacity to require you to register before they&apos;ll give you the links to the articles in their search on <strong>*other websites*</strong>.
			So the domain doesn&apos;t match, but the link did come from one of the websites we were told to use for this assignment.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I don&apos;t think thread use and concurrency are mutually exclusive concepts.
			Rather, threads are one method of making use of concurrency.
			Concurrency takes many forms.
			You could be running two processes at the same time.
			(Your operating system is running more processes at once than you&apos;d probably care to count.)
			But a single process can also perform multiple tasks concurrently using threads.
			Concurrency, both within and without a computer, just refers to multiple things happening at the same time.
			As an example, your heart and your lungs are operating concurrently, as one doesn&apos;t shut down to allow the other to work.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
</section>
<section id="prayer">
	<h2>Prayer impressions log</h2>
	<p>
		I prayed that I was interested to see what would happen next in the story, and what strange twists would occur.
		In response, I saw strange shapes moving in my mind, but I couldn&apos;t tell what they were.
	</p>
	<p>
		After reading, I prayed about Cain&apos;s mysterious wife, who seems to have come from nowhere after Cain got banished for murdering his brother Abel.
		I asked if Adam and Eve were just some side creation, and humanity had actually existed longer.
		In response, I saw in my mind gnarly tree roots, all scrunched together due to the nearby sidewalk keeping them from growing out properly.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="shift">
	<h2>Swapped shift</h2>
	<p>
		A workmate wanted to swap shifts with me today.
		I&apos;d close so they didn&apos;t have to, and they&apos;d go home two hours early.
		I semi-reluctantly agreed.
		I&apos;d planned to spend the time doing coursework and laundry, and the laundry&apos;s got to get done tonight anyway.
		So with the swap, I&apos;d end up staying up late doing laundry, and while I&apos;d still get coursework done, I&apos;d have less time and get less of it done.
		But at least the head manager isn&apos;t in today, so I don&apos;t have to deal with them.
		Two much-better managers are running the show today.
	</p>
	<p>
		But then my workmate offered to take my closing shift of Saturday.
		That way they&apos;d close, and I&apos;d take off two hours early.
		I hadn&apos;t even considered trying to get out of hours later in exchange when I&apos;d agreed to stay late today.
		At first, I liked the idea because Tuesday is my only work day without the head manager.
		I would be trading two terrible hours for two pleasant hours.
		Good deal!
		After thinking about it though, I realised it was an even better deal.
		If I don&apos;t close, the head manager is less likely to put me on the drive-through register.
		Less likely to put me on either register, really, but it&apos;s the drive-through register that he makes so awful to work.
		I might have been spared a bad shift entirely by this trade.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="savings">
	<h2>Savings</h2>
	<p>
		The workmate that&apos;s borrowing \$600 $a[USD] from me asked me for saving tips.
		I guess seeing as I clearly was able to part with that sum for now, while they&apos;re in the hole, they figured I&apos;d have some magic formula.
		I don&apos;t.
		Everything I know, I&apos;ve mentioned to them before.
		The trick is to eliminate a whole bunch of expenses that most people mistake as necessities.
		Is it the best way to save?
		Probably not.
		But it&apos;s what I do.
		I don&apos;t have a motor vehicle.
		That means no automotive loan bill and no automotive insurance bill.
		I don&apos;t have a television, so no cable bill.
		I don&apos;t have children, so no extra mouths to feed and bodies to clothe.
		Honestly, I&apos;ve got it pretty sweet!
		I mean sure, I&apos;m impoverished, but without these few, simple things that really aren&apos;t needed, I keep my expenses low enough that I can save up some money.
	</p>
	<p>
		I also have no mobile bill, which might change soon, and no Internet bill.
		These are things I don&apos;t really like going without, but hey, I&apos;m going without them for the moment and it&apos;s helping me save.
	</p>
	<p>
		I also try to get as much of my stuff second-hand as I can.
		I don&apos;t need brand-new junk, and because I know that, I can save quite a bit of money.
		I also collect cans and bottles for deposit, even though I don&apos;t buy the sorts of beverages that come in returnable containers.
		It&apos;s not much, but it adds a little to my savings.
	</p>
	<p>
		They didn&apos;t really like my answer, and asked what I&apos;d do to save if I <strong>*did*</strong> have all those unnecessary bills.
		Because, y&apos;know, they don&apos;t want to give those things up.
		I replied that I wouldn&apos;t be able to save with all those bills.
		They tried to correct me, and said I meant I wouldn&apos;t be able to save as quickly.
		But no, I replied, I meant I wouldn&apos;t be able to save, and I&apos;d probably actually be in debt.
		There are some large bills that I don&apos;t have, and that&apos;s what keeps me afloat.
	</p>
	<p>
		They mentioned hours getting cut, and how it&apos;s difficult to save when you&apos;re not getting enough hours in to make the money you need.
		I agree.
		They then went on to say that even if you had ten thousand dollars saved up, you wouldn&apos;t be able to get any richer if you couldn&apos;t keep your income up.
		I didn&apos;t say anything, but inside, I kind of chuckled.
		In my day-to-day life, I pretty much consider myself to not have most of my money.
		I mentioned before that I&apos;ve been trying not to touch my main fund lately.
		I&apos;ll tap into it when something comes up.
		For example, I had to tap into it today just to pay rent, because I&apos;ve lent out too much money recently and didn&apos;t have the funds to continue living indoors, otherwise.
		However, I normally just leave it at the credit unions and avoid touching it.
		Between the two credit unions though, I have over twelve thousand dollars set aside.
		Honestly, it&apos;s a pitiful savings.
		But to someone that&apos;s living pay cheque to pay cheque, it would seem like a fortune.
	</p>
	<p>
		So anyway, I&apos;m going to try to compile a list of all the things I can think of to try to save money, to try to help them out.
		There are certain habits they have that definitely need to be broken if they want to save money.
		For example, they&apos;ve mentioned on numerous occasions that because pay day was coming up, they could now afford X.
		That&apos;s the sort of thought process that leads you to live pay cheque to pay cheque.
		If you can&apos;t afford X on the day before pay day, you can&apos;t afford X on pay day.
		You can&apos;t just blow all your money as soon as you have it.
		You need to make it last.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="ring">
	<h2>Ring</h2>
	<p>
		It seems another gem has gone missing from my ring.
		This time, it was the red gem.
		I swear, this ring really wasn&apos;t put together too well.
		I guess that&apos;s what you get when you wear cheap jewellery.
		I don&apos;t have any red nail polish at the moment though, so I&apos;ll need to pick some up to fill in this hole with, like I did when the purple gem went missing.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
